Towing on a Motorway

[DSM10000]

Nah, mate, Watford Gap, innit

Where the skinny latte ends

 

[MOCAŠ]

Where the skinny latte ends

And Hell begins.

 

[corned]

And Hell begins.

But strangely only on the southbound carriageway...

 

[MOCAŠ]

But strangely only on the southbound carriageway...

I asked for that!

 

[Spinal]

Just an update...

Got home safely last night don't think the water pump is leaking at all...I think the bearing on the pump is shot, but I don't think it's leaking.

The previous owner identified the "leak" by filling the two caps that the probe has in it's cooling system, one being the radiator cap and one being the expansion tank. Filling both to the brim obviously fills the expansion tank to the brim, so when you start the car, as soon as it gets up to temperature it pushes out the extra liter or so of water...

Anyhow, long story short, driving home with the heating on full blast and keeping a constant 56mph on cruise control in 5th and the car didn't overheat in the slightest.

Getting to my friends house (and obviously waiting for the engine to cool while I ate) I couldn't find more than the expansion tank amount of water "missing".

The car isn't perfect, there are some rust bubbles on the sunroof (new sunroof is the easiest fix, no playing with a grinding disk), the central locking only unlocks (I reckon it's just a little stiff), and the boot struts need replacing...

That said, for a car with 6 months of road tax/mot, an absolutely full service history, it seems like a reasonable buy

Oh yeah, forgot to say, the interior is brown/tan leather... which I'm not a huge fan of, so that may need to change...

M.

 

[Spinal]

and here she is:

 

[Sp!ke]

why would you buy such a thing? I cant think of a single reason.

 

[nick mercedes]

and here she is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_Rider_(1982_TV_series)

 

[Henry D]

That looks quite tidy,hope its a v6 !.

 

[Spinal]

why would you buy such a thing? I cant think of a single reason.

Two actually She's the second one... I now have a white one and a black one, both with the Mazda DOHC 24v V6 2.5l engine...

They're actually a lot of fun... this one just had new shocks, a strut arm and a general service and handles quite well...

Yes, it does suffer from a bit of understeer, but not that much...

The seats are quite comfy, very adjustable (down to the "fluffyness" of the seat cushion which it inflates with air), has cruise control, a/c, and pretty much everything I need in a car (bar the GPS)...

Oh, and did I mention it cost £250 and there aren't that many left on the road in the UK?

Lastly, I quite like the looks... yes, it's longer than the Voyager and wider than the shogun... but I still like it...

Quite an addicting car, and the fact that they're sold for so little means I can tinker with it with much less worry than with any other car... If I screw up a respray, or anything really, it's as simple as cashing in the tax disc (£100 for 6 months I belive), pulling the leather and anything else worth anything out and scrapping the car... and somehow make money out of it...

Which I might add I don't plan on doing as I have a feeling they'll become a bit of a rarity pretty soon...

That looks quite tidy,hope its a v6 !.

Of course! the 16v ones go for £300-400 for near pristine models... sadly, many are getting scrapped... May buy one just to shove it into a warehouse... it's very tidy, the only real issue is some bubbling above the windscreen and the boot struts not holding... struts are cheap, and the bubbling I'll get sorted next time I'm in the continent...

Apparently it has water pump issues, but I'm not convinced... A new pump is £35, so I'll do that just to make sure...

M.

 

[del320]

It is said Gareth Cheeseman (Steve Coogan) single-handedly wrecked the sales of this wonderful car.

 

[Spinal]

I'd love to know who's putting the tags up - would be nice if people stopped hiding behind the anonimity of tags and actually had the courage to insult me directly instead of putting it in a tag...

 

[Sp!ke]

I suppose for £250 I can understand a hint of bangernomics going on here but in as little as little as 500 and two tanks fo fuel you've more or less doubled your outgoings.

 

[Sp!ke]

Tags removed for you.

There's been an abuse of these tags recently and if it continues I'll be looking to work out how to expose abusive taggers who are currently hiding behind anonymity..

 

[Spinal]

Oh definetly - it's not the most fuel efficient or eco-friendly car on the planet...

That said, I'm willing to spend a little more on fuel as long as the car is comfy and the engine puts a grin on my face

On my trip to Italy, I was doing 300 miles between refills... and pumping ~40 litres of fuel into the tank at each refill... That works out to 34mpg on the motorway, which isn't too shabby at all (and a can of FORTE before leaving )

(oh and this one's unmolested! They're getting hard to find without mushroom cr*p in the engine bay and other barry mods... I guess that the 17-year olds can afford them, so they buy them to mod them... Still no idea how they afford their insurance though as they're CAT17 or so...)

M.

EDIT: Thanks re the tags

 

[Henry D]

I look after a couple of v6's,fair turn of speed and high revving for a v6,they are so bloody big though for the size of the cabin.

 

[Spinal]

Oh they're massive cars... According to the HPI:

Vehicle Dimensions
Length mm 4,585
Width mm 1,780
Height mm 1,315
And that's on a 3-door car!

By comparison, a current E-Class, with 4 doors and it's notoriously spacious boot is:
Length = 4698 mm
Width = 1786 mm
Height = 1398 mm

M.